San Bernardino County D.A. calls out Jon Stewart over police shooting remarks

The San Bernardino County district attorney is pushing back at comedian Jon Stewart for suggesting that the death of a black Victorville man was comparable to the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown at the hands of police.

Dist. Atty. Mike Ramos said in a video statement that Stewart was “so wrong” about the facts surrounding the death of 36-year-old Dante Parker in August.

Stewart said, "The point of these shootings are clearly not a manifestation of systemic inequality and mistrust between the African American community and the somehow always justified police American community, but these are merely an unending, bizarrely similar series of isolated incidents.”

"But if there is nothing to justify the anger and protest in these communities than why would so many individuals around the country spend their precious hard-earned pre-Christmas sale stampeding time protesting an nonexistent problem," he added.

But in a YouTube video posted Wednesday, Ramos said that Parker wasn’t shot, he was shocked with a Taser by a sheriff’s deputy.

A female deputy was “fighting for her life” when the Taser was used on Parker, Ramos said. Parker eventually became unresponsive and was rushed to a local hospital, where he died.

The Riverside County coroner’s office determined that Parker died as a result of acute PCP intoxication and that he had a significant case of hypertensive cardiovascular disease from high blood pressure.

Ramos said Stewart’s statement created an issue where there wasn’t one.

“I really believe we need to get our facts straight before we start making statements like that,” Ramos said.

“We lead the state in officers being killed in the line of duty. Why isn’t anybody protesting and marching about that? No, we try to change the facts, go outside of the justice system and create social issues where social issues should not be created.”

But Parker's family attorney Mark Eisenberg told KABC-TV that the man's death was the result of excessive force by police and lack of care of injuries that arose after the confrontation.